Learning to be content

[ratdog]

Allow yourself the serenity

To accept the things you cannot change,

Courage to change the things you can,

and wisdom to know the difference.

I changed it slightly to remove religious slant

[jonnyboy]

i think every individual needs to look into themselves first, i see people, as you talk about distracted with what they think is reality, but to me that reality is not the one i want its a pre defined reality, i think man has lost his human spirit in the face of modern day distractions that surround him.

Once you look into yourself and analyse everything on a personal level from a standpoint of what you know to be right and wrong (instinctively) you cast of the constraints the fears that restrict man to live life exactly how they wish they could.

This means asking yourself what is real? what really matters in life to you.....and as an example to me simple things are important, im not interested in the rat race of always feeling the need to have a bigger house, bigger bank account, a better car, im not interested in superficial distractions and stories of celebrities, x factor manufactured bollocks...i want to eat good food i dont want to eat food that has been processed beyond beleif and comes from a gentically modified plant, but above all i want my freedom in life, just to be me? and i think a lot of people do as well they just dont know how to find it and are constrained by their fear.

i spend a great deal of time in the countryside i get a lot from that, you often hear people say a walk in the country recharges their batteries, well theres a reason for that, they are feeling an affininty with where we live, our planet....

as soon as man makes the collective conscious decision to throw of a system that is forced upon them only then will they see that that system does not serve them well.

its about understanding yourself, your part in the world around you, and for modern man casting of the fear that restricts their true creativity and inner voice...

deep i know but its where ive arrived at after a long time of trying to understand the world and my place in it.

[ska]

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling. (Margaret Lee Runbeck (1905-1956))

I like it!

[DrWho]

we could go about looking at it a different way.

The brain releases chemicals which make you feel happy/sad

so the key to hapiness is to get the right chemicals released.

One way of doing this is smoking mj

Another is exercise, I'm sure there are countless others.

So if we do enough of the right things we should remain in a positive happy state of mind the majority of the time.

[willowisp]

But then you will always be chasing that feeling, I think what we're after here is "contentment" rather than "happiness".

[DrWho]

But then you will always be chasing that feeling, I think what we're after here is "contentment" rather than "happiness".

And yet here we all are on a site dedicated to a plant that creates 'a feeling'

[Boojum]

I think also one has to consider that some people experience discontent with what they have, others experience discontent with who they are. I'd suggest they are not the same.

[Boojum]

Also, perhaps as a follow on from my previous post, there is also the difference between discontent and depression. Real depression is an illness, it is not about having or not having things etc, one is not depressed about anything, one is simply depressed.

[BiPolar Dave]

Hard punishing exercise, constant muscle aching. 2hrs a day. Only then can I sit back and read a book or just peace out.

The person who mentioned that happiness isn't a place you arrive at was right. It's something you earn, day to day, a continual war.

Looking at most people they aren't happy, they are just in a sort of blinded stupour and they can laugh a bit. I know what happiness is, it's the feeling you get as a manic depressive in the upper spectrum and why people take MDMA. That's real happiness, but it's not the same as what the majority of people are feeling?!

I saw lots of "happy" people on the pacific islands, tonga, samoa, they weren't "consumers", they were free people and they had happy coming out of every cell in their bodies.

It's hard to be "content and happy" in this environment here, it's designed to keep you off balance and chasing the next consumer purchase, playing on your inbred narcististic and vanity driven desires, needing some form of retail therapy to get you through the next week of your boring existance as a stuck in one pleace consumer, both the dust and cogs are what we are here; being sucked and run dry by the corperate vacuum cleaners.

I've seen life in many ways We were designed to be hunter gatherers, to move around have HOPE of something better and the ability to just up sticks and go off in hope of something better. We can't even act on our basic urges within this toxic and glued down existance we all lead.

[jonnyboy]

I think also one has to consider that some people experience discontent with what they have, others experience discontent with who they are. I'd suggest they are not the same.

No not the same, i put it like getting your house in order, if your house is a mess theres a good chance the rest of your life is, if you have no idea where you put those scisors then that leads to stress trying to find them etc, in a tidy house you know where they are (which is great comfort itself) you go to them unconciously and use them, you know how to move around your own house, you subconciously feel it as a solid base that gives you the confindence to go out into life positively.

If we go back to the individual, I beleive it starts with looking into yourself asking questions of yourself and your place in the world, once you have put your own conciousness in order then you have more focused and confident idea of your interactions with the world out there, like trying to run before you can walk.

its easy to get distracted by this modern world we immerse ourselves in which robs us of a true understaning of ourselves by catching our attention, waving shiny things infront of us....before we fully understand if those shiny things are what the true self wants.....

Edited December 9, 2011 by jonnyboy

[dazey]

Also, perhaps as a follow on from my previous post, there is also the difference between discontent and depression. Real depression is an illness, it is not about having or not having things etc, one is not depressed about anything, one is simply depressed.

+1 Boojum. very well said, sir

[jonnyboy]

Hard punishing exercise, constant muscle aching. 2hrs a day. Only then can I sit back and read a book or just peace out.

The person who mentioned that happiness isn't a place you arrive at was right. It's something you earn, day to day, a continual war.

Looking at most people they aren't happy, they are just in a sort of blinded stupour and they can laugh a bit. I know what happiness is, it's the feeling you get as a manic depressive in the upper spectrum and why people take MDMA. That's real happiness, but it's not the same as what the majority of people are feeling?!

I saw lots of "happy" people on the pacific islands, tonga, samoa, they weren't "consumers", they were free people and they had happy coming out of every cell in their bodies.

It's hard to be "content and happy" in this environment here, it's designed to keep you off balance and chasing the next consumer purchase, playing on your inbred narcististic and vanity driven desires, needing some form of retail therapy to get you through the next week of your boring existance as a stuck in one pleace consumer, both the dust and cogs are what we are here; being sucked and run dry by the corperate vacuum cleaners.

I've seen life in many ways We were designed to be hunter gatherers, to move around have HOPE of something better and the ability to just up sticks and go off in hope of something better. We can't even act on our basic urges within this toxic and glued down existance we all lead.

massive like dave, really well put my friend.

[Boojum]

I think also one has to consider that some people experience discontent with what they have, others experience discontent with who they are. I'd suggest they are not the same.

No not the same, i put it like getting your house in order, if your house is a mess theres a good chance the rest of your life is, if you have no idea where you put those scisors then that leads to stress trying to find them etc, in a tidy house you know where they are (which is great comfort itself) you go to them unconciously and use them, you know how to move around your own house, you subconciously feel it as a solid base that gives you the confindence to go out into life positively.

If we go back to the individual, I beleive it starts with looking into yourself asking questions of yourself and your place in the world, once you have put your own conciousness in order then you have more focused and confident idea of your interactions with the world out there, like trying to run before you can walk.

its easy to get distracted by this modern world we immerse ourselves in which robs us of a true understaning of ourselves by catching our attention, waving shiny things infront of us....before we fully understand if those shiny things are what the true self wants.....

I think sometimes a problem can be when someone knows and understands themself perfectly. Just doesn't like who they are. Self-help wankery may claim that it's easy to change who you are (just sign up to my 10 week course, only £100 a session...), but I disagree utterly (I know, I've tried, bloody hard). You are who you are, you can pretend to be someone else, you can perhaps even fool yourself on a surface level that it's worked, but that's not the same thing at all.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Boojum

[willowisp]

But then you will always be chasing that feeling, I think what we're after here is "contentment" rather than "happiness".

And yet here we all are on a site dedicated to a plant that creates 'a feeling'

No! If cannabis is you sole source of happiness or contentment then you have problems.

[BiPolar Dave]

Would you agree that most people think that their "retirement" will being happiness, like in the adverts?? I think alot of people are "content" to delude themselves on a daily basis: at some time in the future all their hardwork and planning will translate into them reaching a utopian mindset. The next great barrier "retirement", like you suddenly pass through a door in the wall of the cage you have existed within and will reborn.

Obviously being a manic I wear the 100x magnification glasses and this allows me to see that most people ge miserable when they retire, their physical health falls off, even more time to sit around and ponder, they say boredom is deadly. Retirement is a delusion alot of people use from their early 30's onwards to justify the "rut" they appear powerless to climb from, retirement will simply be a realisation there is nothing really out there at all once the advertising and delusions are exposed for what they are.

I look at everyone of my neighbours, mostly retired and I don't see a shread of anything about any of them, just hear the wine bottles crash as the recycling bins are loaded up. Sheeple; cardboard cutouts, an inch wide, nothing going on at all inside, living out their remaining days doing nothing of any interest at all.

Pure unfettered apathy. What happened to the human spirit that we were born with? It's been so shat on throughout "life" people are just content with the miserable existance.

The world is a fine place and worth fighting for. I agree with the last bit.

Is that all these folk aimed for, to sit in a chair and sup gin watching countdown? I'm on another planet, of that much I know

People just give up on their dreams and enter into a blinded apathy, maybe that is contentment? Maybe contentment is a protection mechanism to stop you going crazy?